Thursday, April 19, 2012

The following small scale paintings were created during an artist's residency in Yosemite National Park during March and April of 1996. Numerous works were created and virtually none to this date have been shown. All these pieces are interpretations from the sketch book of field studies. These unfinished paintings are now in the process of being reworked with a new eye of resolution. It might be noted that no photographic processes were employed in the execution of these works.

"Art for Art"

These small scale paintings and other selected works will be on view during the month of May 2012.

The group exhibition will show at the Robert Blitzer Gallery in Santa Cruz, Ca.

This 15" x 11" mixed media painting was created from a field study in Yosemite Nat'l Park during an artist residency in March/April 1996. It is a view of the falls in the late morning as the sunlight creeps over a southern valley wall edge. The attempt was to capture the quality of the sunlight and shadow being described by the effusive mist from the falling waters. The painting was rendered on gessoed print making paper with graphite bar and a clear alkyd medium, preserving the whites of the paper for the lightest areas of the composition. The white border was pre masked with tape and doubled as a fastener for the paper to the foam core painting support. The "window" effect was part of that original study.

Returning to the piece this past month ,with the original masking and support still intact, I pursued a reinvigoration and reinterpretation, on the original yellowed piece, through collage and light enhancement. Using white and black Conte crayon, acrylic varnish, Japanese papers and string. The attempt is to recapture the feeling of the mystery and wonder of the light, shadow and sound of that experience.

Field Study: (lower image)South Wall Glacier Pt. Trail 1996

Conte Crayon

"Escarpment Through the Curtain" 1996-2012

Oil, graphite, Conte crayon, acrylic, string,

thread and mulberry paper on paper.

This painting is also a 15" x 11" study. This interpretation of a dark granite outcropping with sheer cliffs beyond is more ambiguous and vague, than literal, in it's rendering and suggestion of form. The string and paper "curtain" is open to solicit a feeling of potential in the moment of confrontation with the dark elements beyond. Is it a cliff with an outcropping or a figure gazing back through the opening? The dusting of red thread cuttings dropped into wet acrylic varnish, across the face of the opening, allude to the formation of matter from nothingness into the presence of this momentary viewing experience. What do you the viewer bring to this moment of perception?

Field Study: Yosemite Falls 1996

Conte Crayon

"Yosemite Falls: View Through the Ice" 1996-2012

Oil, graphite, acrylic, mulberry paper,

cheesecloth and string on paper.

This study, similar in size to those above, imagines viewing the falls from beneath the crystal like surface of an ice covered pond, beautiful and suffocating. The image and surface are alluring, while the view beneath the ice can create a psychological desperation to escape the moment. Does one accept the inevitable and savor the moment or scramble for breath in hopes of more moments?

Field study: Horsetail Falls 1996

Conte Crayon

"As Light Becomes Dark, So Dark Becomes Light" 1996-2012

Oil, graphite, acrylic,mulberry paper and string on paper.

This piece, due to the obscure contrast of the lights and darks in the initial painting, took on a life of it's own. In the collage process, the two small light openings in the dark horizontal mid section passage, became the dominant focal point and the piece as a whole was resolved around it.

It speaks to the notion of darkness. Does the light define the dark or the dark define the light? On which edge of which mass does our perception lie?

It should be mentioned that Horsetail Falls is referred to as an "Ephemeral". The fall is a short lived occurrence of snow melt in February/March. This particular fall is much celebrated for it's display of fiery light, against the shadowy masses of granite it descends, at sunset in February.

Field study:(lower image)

Meadow with Stand of Trees 1996

Conte Crayon

"On Becoming A Meadow" 1996-2012

Oil, graphite, sumi ink, acrylic, string

and mulberry paper on paper.

This 11" x 15" mixed media painting started its journey as a meadow image and evolved into a pond or lake. The central "water" image presented itself, as the string rippled across the surface of the under painting. The sumi ink paper borders along either side define the window of water. The right edge is bulging off the frame alluding to the dynamic quality of nature's unseen force to ripple through perceived and unperceived surfaces, masses and voids.
Are these masses parting from or closing in on the water filled void?
The current scientific wisdom is that the meadows in the Yosemite Valley have occurred over time through a process of lakes filling with sediment and forming these meadows.

YOSEMITE: ART OF AN AMERICAN ICON
This traveling exhibition, the first ever comprehensive overview of the arts related to Yosemite, from the mid 1800's through contemporary art, was curated by and debuted at the Museum of the West Autry National Center, Los Angeles, in September 2006. It was accompanied with an exquisitely illustrated and written publication.

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

In an attempt to label these images I have asked myself questions regarding the layers of design aesthetics, psychological edges and the observational poetry that they might suggest to me.

The "overlooked" is our "ordinary". In paying simple attention to "observing" and the potential in the power of one's perception to reanimate the "ordinary" one opens their "extraordinary"and the possibility into a new way of seeing.